{"id":727497,"date":"2026-08-04T19:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/727497\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T19:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:36:10","slug":"eu-chief-criticises-spains-migrant-plan-after-ceuta-crisis-meeting-european-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/727497\/","title":{"rendered":"EU chief criticises Spain\u2019s migrant plan after Ceuta crisis meeting | European Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

The EU\u2019s top official on migration has criticised Spain\u2019s plan to regularise undocumented migrants<\/a> as \u201cnot a good signal\u201d for Europe, after an emergency meeting intended to draw a line under divisions on the Ceuta crisis.<\/a><\/p>\n

Magnus Brunner, the European commissioner for migration, said that while the EU could not currently see a direct link between events in Ceuta and Spain\u2019s regularisation plan, the policy was \u201cdefinitely not a good signal for the rest of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was a rare note of discord as the EU sought to move on from an acrimonious row, caused after tens of thousands of migrants arrived \u2013 and mostly left \u2013 the tiny Spanish territory in north Africa.<\/p>\n

EU interior ministers held a hastily arranged video conference on Tuesday, intended to learn lessons from the politically divisive Ceuta crisis and chart next steps.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s government said at least 75 people had died<\/a> trying to reach the territory last week, although Ceuta authorities on Monday put the death toll at 88, with at least 11 more on the Moroccan side of the border.<\/p>\n

About 70,000 of the 72,000 people who entered Ceuta had left, Spain\u2019s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, told reporters on Tuesday. He described the EU meeting as constructive, saying \u2060member states had \u200brecognised Madrid\u2019s \u201cimmediate and efficient\u201d response.<\/p>\n

\u2018A test of our resilience\u2019: Magnus Brunner speaking on Wednesday. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet\/EPA<\/p>\n

Brunner said the past few days had been \u201ca test of our resilience\u201d and the EU\u2019s external border. The situation, he said, was under control; no one had moved to mainland Spain and the EU\u2019s border-free Schengen zone had not been affected.<\/p>\n

The message of unity came after several EU member states heavily criticised Spain. Twenty two signed a letter, organised by Italy and Denmark, that implicitly criticised Madrid\u2019s plan to regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers<\/a> as a \u201cpull factor\u201d for \u201cillegal migration\u201d. Nearly 1.2 million people have applied for the scheme.<\/p>\n

Asked about Spain\u2019s regularisation policy, Brunner said it was not discussed on Tuesday, but added: \u201cI always say to this regularisation discussion \u2026 it\u2019s not a good signal, definitely not a good signal for the rest of Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cI do understand that it is a member state\u2019s competence. And I do understand that Spain did it because it\u2019s mainly about Latin Americans speaking the same language, having the same culture, but the signal for the rest of Europe is not a good one, definitely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brunner declined to criticise Italy\u2019s decision to reintroduce air and sea border checks with Spain for one month, after the Spanish prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, said such moves were informed by \u201cprejudice, fake news, ignorance and political interest\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

Brunner said any suspension of Schengen rules had to be proportionate and temporary, adding: \u201cI have some understanding of this reaction of the Italians, because the citizens are concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

France\u2019s interior minister, Laurent Nu\u00f1ez, said EU ministers had agreed the Schengen zone was \u201cnot the problem\u201d. France was one of the few member states not to sign the letter of 22 EU leaders indicating readiness to reintroduce border checks, although it did step up its own controls.<\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s interior minister, Morten B\u00f8dsko, said he was \u201cvery satisfied\u201d with Spain\u2019s handling of the crisis, but doubled down on the message that the EU needed tougher border controls, adding: \u201cUncontrolled immigration is a threat to Europe and Denmark.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HowHow Ceuta migrant crisis exposes divisions within Europe – The Latest<\/p>\n

Ministers broadly endorsed a five-point plan set out by European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who proposed further action to strengthen Europe\u2019s external borders<\/a>, including an early-warning system and better cooperation with non-EU countries on migration.<\/p>\n

A statement published by the EU council after the meeting said there was \u201ca common understanding of the need to continue relentlessly fighting migrant smuggling networks, to reinforce returns, to strengthen EU borders, to build deep partnerships with third countries, and to improve foresight\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ministers emphasised the need to improve \u201csituational awareness, which could be achieved by further developing early-warning systems such as pre-frontier intelligence and social media monitoring\u201d and efforts to \u201ccounter malicious external actors engaged in foreign information manipulation and interference\u201d, the statement said.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s foreign policy service was investigating the possible role played by Russian disinformation, but it was too early to reach conclusions, Brunner said.<\/p>\n

Migration has been a deeply divisive issue for the EU since the 2015-16 crisis, when more than a million people sought asylum in the union. As far-right and nationalist parties seek to outflank mainstream rivals on the issue, tensions remain high, despite fewer people making irregular crossings.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s border agency, Frontex, reported 178,000 irregular border crossings in 2025, down 26% on the previous year and the lowest since 2021, when much of Europe was in Covid lockdown.<\/p>\n

Irregular arrivals in Spain (36,683) were significantly lower than in Italy<\/a> (66,328) and Greece (51, 399), as well as attempted and successful crossings to the UK (65,891), according to Frontex.<\/p>\n

The 2015-16 crisis paved the way for a sweeping overhaul of the EU\u2019s asylum and migration rules<\/a>, which came into force in June.<\/p>\n

Brunner emphasised the need to implement the EU\u2019s migration pact, playing down a suggestion from Greece that further emergency measures were required.<\/p>\n

The Greek prime minister, Kyri\u00e1kos Mitsot\u00e1kis, in an article for Politico<\/a>, said countries should be able to suspend asylum applications for newly arrived people when facing \u201cexceptional situations of extreme and disproportionate pressure\u201d. Europe was facing the \u201cdeliberate instrumentalisation of migration by state and non-state actors\u201d, he wrote, saying the pact did not provide the tools for these scenarios.<\/p>\n

Brunner disagreed \u2013 \u201cthe pact does offer solutions for this\u201d \u2013 while not ruling out changes, saying EU leaders would discuss a \u201cstrategic way forward\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EU\u2019s top official on migration has criticised Spain\u2019s plan to regularise undocumented migrants as \u201cnot a good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-727497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}